Watch Out Asia, Rocket Internet Reveals It Raised $1.3 Billion So Far This Year

Germany’s startup dynamo that’s plotting world domination, Rocket Internet, has netted $500 million – yes, half a billion – in funding “to further expand Rocket Internet´s world-wide network of successful internet startups.” Usual partners Investment AB Kinnevik and Access Industries provided the funding. The round was raised since May 2012, and is in addition to recent rounds such as Lazada’s $100 million in new funding that it got last month.

This new funding means that the Samwer brothers have raised $1.3 billion (EUR 1 billion) in the first six months of 2013.

Rocket Internet tends to focus on emerging markets or ones where it can become the market leader with relative ease. With “75 ventures with 20,000 employees in over 50 countries world-wide,” there are inevitably some failures, such as last week’s closure of its China-oriented Airbnb clone called Airizu. But the company has plenty more ventures.